Elbow injuries in the young athlete

Young athletes sustain fractures, dislocations, and overuse injuries to their elbows. Overuse injuries are particularly troublesome because they begin insidiously. The majority of elbow overuse injuries can be attributed to excessive baseball pitching and are part of the “Little League elbow” syndrome. Elbow overuse problems also occur in overhead racquet sports and in gymnastics. The key to diagnosis, treatment, and prevention is knowledge of the forces about the elbow, strengths of the growing tissues and sequelae to the elbow if injuries are left untreated. Although most of the conditions are managed nonsurgically, arthroscopic techniques are useful to correct those requiring surgical intervention.